Hands-on Top Spin 3

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We go hands-on with the new - and very much improved - Top Spin DS.

By Bozon

Without pulling any punches, we'd say Top Spin 2 on DS was pretty abysmal. The game had serious promise, some decent 3D, solid animation, a slew of mini-games, a fun career mode, but one of the worst frame rates we'd seen on DS at its time of release. Despite having everything you think would make for a great game, the Top Spin 2 chugged, and as we stated countless times in our original interview (that donned a lovely 4.0 final score), one flaw – as long as it's a major one – can hold back an otherwise awesome experience.

2K seems to have taken that to heart.

Top Spin 3 is now sitting in our DS, and it hasn't left it for the last couple of days for one specific reason; the framerate is fixed, and it's now fun to play because of it. We've already seen that Top Spin 3 is now a blending of what we loved and hated from the original, but with the game's main downfall out of the way we've finally got a chance to sit down with a portable tennis game that's fun to play, and strong enough to really consider for on-the-go sports fans.

Top Spin 3 looks good, and feels much, much better.

Top Spin 3 keeps the same main core that it had in its previous version. Upon booting up the game players can select form a quick exhibition match in 14 different locales, with 13 men and eight women from the pros. Most of the locales are the expected courts from previous games -- US Open or Sony Ericsson Open to name a couple -- as well as a Rome and China arena for international play, but there's also a mix of arcade-inspired stages, including a main indoor practice cout, an Amazon Jungle playfield, beach area, garden, and rooftop that overlooks a skyscrapers and carnival rides. Also returning from last year is a main Career mode where players can create their own player and go through seasons of play, gaining more attributes for mini-game completion, special events, and ranked tournaments. All mini-games are also included from the main menu as well, along with a quick tournament mode, and multi-card wireless play.

Games still require a quick three second load screen before booting, but it's usually as fast as a quick fade-out, fade-in "disguised" load that most 3D-heavy games use on DS. Once you get into the game, you'll notice that Top Spin 3 has some of the strongest 3D models and animation found on DS, and since it all runs at a solid framerate – between 25 and 30 frames per second – it's a fun experience, and some of the best sports gameplay we've seen on DS. As with other Top Spin titles, you can use the L and R buttons to do pro angle shots or power shots (each fairly difficult and timing-based to pull off), or hit regular shots, smashes, lobs, slices, and top spin blasts, all with the different DS face buttons. Classic animations such as the behind-the-back or between-the-legs showoff shots have returned, and with the action shown on the top screen the bottom is available for options menus, a court icon that blinks based on which area your shot hits, and touch-activated turbo bars that give you quicker run speed and stronger shots for a limited time.

Audio is still a bit of an issue this time around, since there isn't much variation to the crowd reactions and music. The tunes in the game – at least what we've heard so far – are either remixed or direct copies of the clips from Top Spin 2, and the crowd (we remember that annoying whistling guy specifically) is taken directly from the original. Crowds are as annoying as ever, and we again found ourselves turning down the volume from time to time in order to avoid brain aneurysms. Please 2K, kill that whistling guy immediately; he hurts us so!

Unlike last year though, the audio is worth suffering through in order to play some solid Top Spin action. The game is quick and smooth, the frame rate ends up making the experience feel like a true, rhythm-based tennis experience, and the final result is something that feels a little thrown together on the interface side, but plays like Top Spin should play. We've got a lot more to play with the game before giving any final review, but already it's showing some serious potential.

We'll have more on Top Spin 3 as we near it's final review. Until then, check out some screens and videos of the game in action, and be sure to enjoy the new framerate; we sure as hell are.